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Up to 13,000 Black and other minority farmers could start to see thousands of dollars in loan forgiveness beginning in June, as a part of the federal stimulus package that aimed to help disadvantaged farmers but has been delayed for months, the Washington Post reported. Some $4 billion of the American Rescue Plan Act was allocated for debt relief for disadvantaged farmers of color to remedy centuries of government discrimination. Black farmers had accused the U.S. Department of Agriculture of dragging its feet on the program, because, so far, no money has gone out the door. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency announced on Friday that notices to disadvantaged farmers are going out, explaining that the debt relief money is now available, and that the agency expects to start paying the Farm Service Agency direct loans in early June. Civil rights activists have said the debt relief program represents a big step toward righting a wrong after a century of mistreatment of farmers of color by the government and others. Meanwhile, White farmers and some lawmakers have criticized the program, calling it a form of reverse racism, and banks have warned it would financially harm lending institutions. Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said that he estimates that between 11,000 and 13,000 Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan Native, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers will benefit from this program, with the entirety of their loans paid off by the U.S. Treasury. Eligible farmers and ranchers will also receive an additional 20 percent of that loan as a cash payment sent directly to them, to cover the tax burden that comes with such large debt relief.

The Biden administration’s efforts to provide $4 billion in debt relief to minority farmers is encountering stiff resistance from banks, which are complaining that the government initiative to pay off the loans of borrowers who have faced decades of financial discrimination will cut into their profits and hurt investors, the New York Times reported. The debt relief was approved as part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that Congress passed in March and was intended to make amends for the discrimination that Black and other nonwhite farmers have faced from lenders and the United States Department of Agriculture over the years. But no money has yet gone out the door. Instead, the program has become mired in controversy and lawsuits. In April, white farmers who claim that they are victims of reverse discrimination sued the U.S.D.A. over the initiative. Now, three of the biggest banking groups — the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and National Rural Lenders Association — are waging their own fight and complaining about the cost of being repaid early. Their argument stems from the way banks make money from loans and how they decide where to extend credit. When a bank lends money to a borrower, like a farmer, it considers several factors, including how much interest it will earn over the lifetime of the loan and whether the bank can sell the loan to other investors. By allowing borrowers to repay their debts early, the lenders are being denied income they have long expected, they argue. The banks want the federal government to pay money beyond the outstanding loan amount so that banks and investors will not miss out on interest income that they were expecting or money that they would have made reselling the loans to other investors.

The Biden administration, which has made combating racism a centerpiece of its agenda, is pledging to reverse decades of discriminatory agricultural lending and subsidy policies that have left Black farmers at an economic disadvantage and is racing to deploy $5 billion in aid and debt relief to help them, the New York Times reported. At the center of this initiative is the Agriculture Department, an agency that has long been derided by Black farmers as the United States’ “last plantation.” Now the department is in the middle of a drastic overhaul, both of its personnel and of policies that it acknowledges have perpetuated inequality in rural America for years. President Biden’s agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, yesterday said that he would work to root out the vestiges of racism at his agency and to redress “systemic discrimination” that Black farmers had faced.

A review of Washington state brand inspection records has failed to find discrepancies that would explain how one of the nation’s largest meatpackers could have lost 200,000 cattle through business dealings with a Mesa, Washington-based rancher, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reported. The Washington State Department of Agriculture initiated the audit earlier this year after Tyson Fresh Meats, which operates a packing plant near Pasco, alleged in a lawsuit that Easterday Ranches Inc. defrauded the meatpacker of $225 million by claiming to have purchased and fed for the company about 200,000 cattle that never existed. “Given the two operations are engaged in this legal dispute involving the number of cattle, the program undertook this because it seemed like a prudent step to take to ensure there were no areas of concern or issues with this information we received,” department spokesperson Hector Castro said. The state reviewed brand inspection reports that Easterday Ranches are required to provide monthly that show how many cattle it had in feedlots from January 2019 to January 2021. Inspectors then compared those documents to reports submitted by Tyson reflecting the number of cattle it processed at the meatpacking plant at Wallula. “They didn’t find any discrepancy between the numbers,” Castro said. He said that the department’s review of documents didn’t look at the in-person inspections but focused instead on those monthly paper audits of how many cattle Easterday Ranches reported feeding in its pens. According to court records, Easterday Ranches would bill Tyson for cattle it purchased and then fed to slaughter weight. But late last year, Tyson officials said they became aware of problems. “Its investigation, including the admissions of Defendant’s President Cody Easterday, showed there were over 200,000 head of cattle that Defendant reported to be in inventory, but which did not exist,” Tyson attorney Alan D. Smith wrote in court records. After the lawsuit was filed in state court, Easterday Ranches Inc. and Easterday Farms both filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early February, alleging that each owed creditors, including Tyson, more than $100 million.

Texas farmers and ranchers have lost at least $600 million to the winter storm that struck the state last month, according to an assessment issued this week by economists at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, the New York Times reported. Damage and disruption from the bitter blast of cold and snow, which farmers are calling “the St. Valentine’s Day massacre,” is likely to cause some gaps on grocery shelves in the eastern part of the country and push prices higher, especially on crops like sweet Texas onions that were just about to be harvested, leafy greens that would have headed for the East Coast and even cabbage, which this year might not be the St. Patrick’s Day sale item it often is. The storm also caused a severe shipping and processing bottleneck that continues to challenge the food-supply chain. Truck drivers were stuck for days waiting to load or unload produce. Processing plants had no power. Dairies were forced to dump 14 million gallons of milk, said Sid Miller, the Texas commissioner of agriculture. In a state that sells $25 billion worth of agricultural products each year and has more farms and ranches than any other, the damage is spread far and wide.

Tyson Foods Inc.’s beef-producing unit has asked a judge to appoint a bankruptcy trustee to run Easterday Ranches Inc., which filed for chapter 11 protection after the food company sued it for alleged fraud, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Tyson said restructuring professionals who recently took over Pasco, Wash.-based Easterday allowed a significant land sale to go through just before its Feb. 1 bankruptcy filing. Much of the money from the $16 million sale of the feed lot went to pay professionals and insiders of the family-run operation who had steered the business into trouble, according to Tyson, Easterday’s sole customer. Tyson said that it is out roughly $200 million it funded Easterday to feed cattle that didn’t exist, adding it was forced to come up with more money last week to keep 54,000 cattle actually on Easterday’s ranch from starving. The push for a bankruptcy trustee from one of the country’s largest meat producers takes aim at alleged actions involving restructuring adviser Paladin Management Group, a consulting firm that works with distressed businesses. Paladin failed to prevent the land sale, according to Tyson’s motion calling for a trustee, which was filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Spokane and Yakima, Wash. A spokeswoman for Paladin said Easterday will respond to the motion at the appropriate time, adding the company doesn’t believe the appointment of a trustee is in the best interests of the estates.

The Biden administration will provide debt-relief measures for more than 12,000 financially distressed farmers, Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will temporarily suspend past-due debt collections and foreclosures for farmers borrowing under two major loan programs administered by the Farm Service Agency, administration officials said. The measure is designed to help farmers hit by the coronavirus pandemic and economy’s slump with about 10% of borrowers qualifying. “USDA and the Biden Administration are committed to bringing relief and support to farmers, ranchers and producers of all backgrounds and financial status, including by ensuring producers have access to temporary debt relief,” Robert Bonnie, the department’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement. The government is evaluating ways to improve and address borrowing to keep farmers “earning living expenses, providing for emergency needs and maintaining cash flow,” Bonnie said. The USDA will temporarily suspend non-judicial foreclosures and wage garnishments and halt referring foreclosures to the Justice Department. The department will also seek to stop foreclosures and evictions already in progress. The administration plans to keep the debt-relief measures in place until the COVID-19 emergency ends, the officials said.